OUR LATEST ISSUE
SITE SEARCH
Gay News: The average age at which people come out as gay is falling, says gay rights organisation, Stonewall
By: Nigel Robinson
People aged 18-24 came out at 17
People aged 18-24 came out at 17
People coming out earlier
16 November 2010
According to a poll of 1,500 openly gay respondents, gay people now in their 30s had come at an average age of 21.
People in the 18 – 24 age bracket had come out when they were seventeen.
However for openly gay men and women in the over-60 group, the average age when they came out was 37.
Ruth Hunt, Stonewall’s deputy director of public affairs, attributed the steadily declining age of coming out to the increasing visibility of gay men and women in the public eye, and on television shows and soaps, such as EastEnders, as well as the greater availability of information about sex and sexuality.
“Everyone should come out when they feel ready and confident,” she told the Guardian, “but this is an encouraging trend and sends a positive message to anyone not yet out: you don’t have to wait. Britain is a fairer country than it once was, and support is available to you...”
“What we’re seeing is an explosion of role models and people talking about being gay, so people are more able to associate what they’re feeling with something they can see.”
The poll was conducted via social networking sites. It did not, however, question people who might know that they are gay but have not yet come out.
